Friday was our last day in Jarabacoa and was full of laughter, tears, and goodbyes. We began our day trying to wrap up some projects at Palo Blanco. We made good progress with the painting and Chris Bennett accomplished a lot on getting the electrical wired in the new building. We had a quick lunch of cold cut sandwiches and chips and then went back to the team house to get cleaned up and ready to head to the Ark orphanage.
(The new building at Palo Blanco, before and after we painted it. Lots of painting was done inside too.)
We got to the Ark for recess just in time for the downpour of rain to begin. We unloaded the basketballs, board games, and nail polish and dodged the rain drops as we rushed through the campus to the big multipurpose room where we could play with the kids indoors. The room with cement walls and floor was soon echoing with the laughter and chatter of our beautiful kids that were so happy to see us. A quick glance around the room would show little girls giving manicures and pedicures to anyone who would accept, exerting games of tag and kickball, and board games being enjoyed and understood by all even though the rules could not be explained in one common language. It was so apparent that these beautiful brown skinned kiddos had formed a relationship with the Americanos who are wrapped around their little fingers. When the rain let up some of the team sat outside with the kids, just content to be together enjoying the cool breezes blowing in off of the mountain. Sitting next to a mango tree we would occasionally hear the thump of the fruit falling to the ground. Moments later any child that heard it would jump up and make a mad dash to see who could grab the mango first. The winner would immediately start peeling the fruit with their teeth and would soon have the orange, sticky juice dripping off of their faces and hands as they enjoyed their prize. All too soon recess time was over and we loaded the bus to head back to the team house for dinner with a promise to return in a few hours for the talent show planned for later in the evening.
(Tracey playing cards with some of the Ark kids.)
After dinner we loaded back into the bus to head across town to go back to the Ark. This time we were greeted with the squeal of excited kids that were dressed as “loco” (crazy) as they could. Hats were on backwards, pants were inside out, shoes were mismatched, and faces were painted. The multipurpose room that we had been playing in just hours before had been transformed in the “Gran Circa”. And just when we thought the Ark kids couldn’t get any louder, they were given a microphone! While we couldn’t understand what the kids were saying we enjoyed watching them sing, dance, play games, and give what appeared to be a stand-up comedy routine. At the end of the evening our team was asked to come up on stage so the kids could pray for our trip. Three kids took the microphone and prayed in Spanish for us. After praying the kids made a mad dash for the stage to give us goodbye hugs. Reality quickly set in that this was our final goodbye for this trip and the tears starting flowing. Some members of our team quickly circled up their sponsored children to pray over them. Our sweet kids hugged us over and over again and wiped the tears off of our faces. We walked hand in hand back to our bus and watched in silence as our kids ran back to their houses.
(Chris Wert with her sponsored boy, Willy - all dressed up for the Gran Circa!)
(Coralma, sponsored by Chris and Rachel Russell, in her "loco" costume!)
Tomorrow we are heading to the beach for a day to unwind and process the trip as a team. We are all processing two main questions right now. “What did I learn about myself?” and “What did I learn about God?”. When we get back home we encourage each of you to seek us out and ask us to share our stories. The stories and faces are forever imprinted on our hearts and we would love to share a piece of that with all of you.
Our names are Phyllis, Chris B, Chris W, April, Tracey, Chris R, Rachel, Jill, Kim, Tyler, Riley and Rose – and we made it personal!
(Our photo in front of the team house right before leaving. Also in the photo on the left is Katie and Derek Allen and on the right is Brian and Emily Veen. Both couples are missionaries in Jarabacoa.)
